Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-12-04
.CARLETON'S TRAVELS.
THROUGH FRANCE, ALONG THE VALLEY OF
THR SEINE.
A Sunday in he Frs1eh Rspublis-A CAsun HCus'
0Eesr and Lnsiean Hum1-Fum Life IN
Panes-Ralrading through the Rspubhe.
copyrighted
En- ROUTE !
BETWEEN FRANCE AND ITALY, J
Hnvemher X 1897

Our great ship pauses for the first time
in seven days and nights. All this time
her steel-muscled engines have been work.
ing away, regular as 8 pendulum and strong
Is q thunderbolt. But now they rest for
a little time, and we throw overheard a
huge anchor within sight of the Liverpool
Of Franee-Hayre.
1t looks in the distance like a new-old
city, with all its antiquated buildings and
modern docks, its church-spires centuries
Of age, and its newly-painted steamer-fun-
nels. Havre is struggle between the old
and the new-the Middle Ages fighting
with the bright and world-pervading
Present. 1t looks like a village off there
among the hills, but we know that it is as
large as our Albany or MISUNDERSTANDING
over a hundred thousand inhabitants.
1t is three 'of the hour" Sunday after
noon. At home along our American shores
the clock has Just struck ten in the morn
ing, and people are brushing around and
getting ready TO 90 to divine service, while
church-bells are filing the air with
anthems. But
SUNDAY IN FRANCE
is a kind Of Fourth.ofJ1ly, without the
cannon and ire-erackers. The people get
through with their prayers and masses
pretty middling quick, and have q very
secular time all the rest ofthe day-though
many of them work iudustriously at their
trades and svocations, just as if there we're
no golden-lsttered word in the calendar.
Two small ships come out to us-One for
our bodies and one for our bsggage-and
We are soon landed at a spacious dock in
| the heart of the city. The pier is fringed
with hundreds of enthusiastic men and
women, who have friends on board.
French peoples enthusiasm is partly ridi-
culOus and partly pathetic. They fling
their arms wildly about each other in close
and u~nmitigated embrace, instead OF some
what feryently shaking hands, as Ameri-
can people do. They kiss each other some
times all over the countenance-men and
women-instead Of perpetrsting the half
cordial, half-formal American osculstory
greeting. But they sometimes weep for
Joy; and real tears dignity almost any
scene.
We submit u ''baggg," as the French
call luggage, to the Custom House officer,
q fierce, wurderous-looking fellow within
an extensive circular counter. Unlike the
New York receivers of shore tribute, be has
no lady assistance, and does his painful
duty in a very little while. He looks AT
US as sharply as if each eye were the blade
of a Connecticut jaCk-knife Just ground,
stabs our poor sea-siCk trunks with another
glance, points a long and well-tapered
finger at them, and says: ''You hat, zen,
no ceegarz in zere?" We replied, regret
fully, that no., we have not, and if he has
a good one to offer us We will acceptit, and
do as much for him another time. Bat
this feeple attempt at American humor is
entirely lost within the capacious folds of
his spasmodic dignity. Heierkily" chalks'
the trunks without unlocking them, and
waves them majestically away.
OHt Of several experiences with custom.
house people, l have picked up the infor-
nation that the best way to get along is TO
rush at them eagerly, trunk-keys in hand,
as if you had a lot OF pretty, more or less
dutiahle things that you wished them par
ticularly to see. Help them q little in
their Investigations, and smile upon then.
They get 50 many frowns and curses, in
simply doing their duty according to Law,
that q good nature1 Countenance comes to
them like i drink Of clear, cool water.
But il in opening your baggage you Eesi-
tatc. you are lOst-Or, at least, some OF
sour things may be, if the law has the
least claim upon them. Some people
assert that customs officers may be bribed
| cannot say in regard to this.
We scrape our chattels together, and pass
the night at one of the hotels of the town.
Most OF the fe!lOw-passeDgers take n special
train, provided by the steamship company,
straight TO Paris, where they arrive about
midnight, IN a pretty little drilling show.
er, and make at least two thirds ola night
OF it before getting to bed. They will adj,
init, some of them, when we see them
again, that it would have been better to
make haste slowly, rest all night, and pro,
coed leisurely to Paris next day.
The scamp who brings our baggage over
TO the hotel has
EVIDENTLY LITEDIS NEW YORK,
for he tries TO collect by the system OF
double entry; but we have lived il New
York too. The hedstead in our tastily.at
tired French room seems to roll more or
less during the night-a Renaissance and
result of having the nerves tossed TO aud
fro for a week upon the sea. We wander
about the town next day, and find it, so far
as the tourists purposes are concerned, an
ordinary old French place, with a dash
Of imported American enterprise thrown
in. We discover that st. Pierre was
born in this city, that the people are very
proud of the tact, and that they have
given him a stone in front of one of their
public buildings shaped into a semblance
of himself. How much bread they ever
gave him to shape into a semblance OF
himself is not mentioned upon the mOnu-
ment. We come back to our hotel, endure
a quiet, depressed, long-drawn-out French
table dhOte, stray into a writing room, and
there see a little living picture Of straight
forward French life after il has passed the
meridian and entered the lists of old age.
4 nice-lookiDg gentleman Of seventy or
more, and his wife, perhaps nearly as old,
are seated in a corner OF the room at the
ends OF a rather long table. Each has a
pack of cards, and each is silently and
earnestly playing a game Of solitaire.
They look neither to the right nor the
left, but attend strictly to business, trying
hard to master the many chances that are
against them.
The good old lady soon finishes her
game-whether successfully or not che does
not tell with her conference.-the then
comes and rests one hand on her husbands
sholdier, and begins to give him advice.
The old gentleman is in the midst of a
stirring campaign with kings, queens,
knaves, and spots; but he listens TO her
suggestions like the well-disciplined bene-
dict he Is, and for half an hour they dis.
cuss anxiously and earnestly the proba-
bilities Of this fierce battle upon paste
board. When victory arrives at last both
are equally glad, for they are both on the
same side, and their pleasure adds materi-
ally to the geniaiity Of the atmosphere.
49,